This Blog is devoted to a unique art experiment to recreate original works of art using my own hand whilst at the same time examining the art and its meanings

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

I'm Being Swept From The Jet!

Welcome to part 12 of

In which after The Mercenary shoots a gun through the fuselage of a jumbo jet, the blast is somehow enough to sweep The Human Fly from the jet in this next physics defying recreated page:-

Now we conclude with the final part of "The Rocketman" aka Ky Michaelson's story of his experience building a rocket powered motorbike for the Human Fly , a story which appears in full on his own website http://the-rocketman.com/human-fly.html

Last time The Human Fly did indeed fly on top of a rocket powered motorbike, but it was not a case of happy landings as:-"The rear end dropped, nearly arching the bike completely backwards as it hit the receiving ramp hard, before then crashing down on him."Over to Ky for the rest of this:-"My heart just pounded as I stood there, witnessing the crash of all crash landings right before my eyes, and a hush fell over the crowd, as we all feared the worst. It looked like nobody could have possibly survived such a crash landing. We were soon relieved though when we realized he was actually okay. He'd survived the crash, and he'd done it-he had broken Evil's record, but not without paying the price. He waved to the crowd as he was carried off on a stretcher, suffering a broken ankle and a couple other injuries. *Now, if you ever want to hear more details about this story, just buy me a Diet Coke the next time you see me, and I'll be happy to share one of the most bizarre events of my life with you.That jump, and my rocket bike, went down in the history books and then, as things work out, I lost track of both the Human Fly and the bike. I'm happy to say, however, that this story has a rather unique ending. Even though I had long since gotten over owning that fine machine, I received a call not long ago from a stuntman friend of mine, Bubba, a renowned and darn good motorcycle jumper himself, with some astonishing news. He told me he had picked up a "Trading Times" magazine while he was in Florida, and was dumbfounded when he spotted a motorcycle in it that he could have sworn was my original rocket bike. He gave me the phone number, and I immediately contacted John Werner, the owner, who attested and confirmed that it was in fact the bike used in that incredible stunt. I told him to name his price; I wanted it back, and BADLY, so he agreed to sell it back to me for $6,500. I sent a good friend of mine down to pick it up, and am pleased and proud to say it is now resting back in my rocket shop where I built it some 23 years ago. They had it rebuilt after the crash, and it looks good as new, in great shape.The only thing they changed was to ad a gas tank. I find myself just staring at it frequently, and reminiscing back to that history-making event quite often. I'm happy to say that if you ever hear of anybody looking for a bike that can jump 27 buses? I've got just the thing, but there's one condition! They need to see a psychiatrist first."

Hopefully you will have noticed that as Ky's story progressed the stakes seemed to get higher and higher, The Human Fly wanted the stunt to be even more dangerous (more buses) until he was told otherwise (by Ky), The Human Fly didn't practice the stunt at all (despite saying he practised on TV), the team putting together the ramp made fatal errors (despite being described as professionals, again on TV) which was fixed only at the eleventh hour (at the insistence of Ky) - only to have The Human Fly still suffer from a horrific crashIt is kind of telling that this was the last stunt that The Human Fly is known to have performed for which it can be proven that it did actually happen, and that The Human Fly did kind of disappeared after thisBut our story is not done yet - we have in fact reached the pivotal point in of this journey through the Human Fly's story and indeed Bill Mantlo's…Speaking of which…TRAGIC TALEAs before I would like to remind you all that the following appears with very kind thanks and much appreciation to Bill CoffinYou can read the entire article here http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2011/11/07/tragic-tale and of course it comes highly recommendedTake it away Bill Coffin!:-"It was also at this time, however, that his marriage fell apart. Mantlo had married Karen Pocock years before when they were both working at Marvel (Pocock was a letterer). Pocock had a young son, Adam, from a previous marriage whom Mantlo accepted and raised as his own. In 1981, the couple had a daughter, Corinna. And when Bill entered law school, Karen left her own career as a photographer to become a teacher; their calling to help people had been a joint life change. But by 1988, he and Karen were bitterly divorcing. The experience was hard on both children. Adam, 21 years old and an accomplished bicycle mechanic, stayed far from home to distance himself from the emotional carnage. Corinna was only seven and stayed with her mother, but the stress of the divorce also had a long-lasting effect on her. To this day, she does not readily share details about it. Regardless, Bill, Adam and Corinna still saw each other regularly and maintained a close relationship. Both Adam and Corinna describe Bill as a great father.Throughout his time at Marvel and at Legal Aid, Bill was an avid runner, biker and rollerblader, keeping himself in excellent shape. A favorite activity was to take Adam and Corinna dirt biking in Central Park. Bill always wore a helmet, and insisted that his kids did likewise. But when rollerblading, Mantlo did not wear any head protection, like many other early rollerbladers. It was an oversight that would destroy his life."Those of you who have been reading these two stories week after week, may have wondered at which point was they going to tie together, when would fact be Paralleled with fiction and which would be fact and which would be fiction?Over the next two weeks, the true and real life story of Bill Mantlo the true tragedy will be paralleled with the possibly fictitious origin of The Human Fly as written into issue 1 of The Human Fly by Bill Mantlo himselfJoin me NEXT WEEK for Parallel!